Fatigued Worthing unable to bounce back at Bristol

Thunder were without Bud Johnston (back injury), Tomas Seduikis (wrist injury) and Joe Carter (unavailable) for the game and were also fatigued from the game the night before.

Bristol led the game throughout as they opened up a 25-12 advantage by the end of the first quarter. A 7-0 Thunder run narrowed the deficit to 27-19 in the second stanza but Bristol had moved 41-29 ahead by half-time.

The home side increased their lead to 61-43 by the end of the third quarter, before Thunder opened the final period with a 7-0 burst. That gave Worthing hope at 61-50 but Bristol responded well after a time-out to keep Thunder at bay.

Rory Spencer led Thunder with 20 points, Terrell Bell sank 18 and Brendan Okoronkwo and Jack Sunderland both scored 12.

Thunder coach Daniel Hildreth said: “We wanted to win as this was a big, big game for us but it’s hard when you have come off a double over-time game the night before where a few of the guys played over 46 minutes.

“It’s hard for them to play solidly for another 25 or 30 minutes in this game. Credit to Bristol, they shot the ball magnificently and deserved the win.”

Due to a production error, this report did not appear on page 105 of the February 13 edition.